Fear Of Transparency Leads Brands To Resort To Mascots

The Wall Street Journal reported that company mascots are getting more popular on Facebook and Twitter because “who wants to talk to a logo?”

Of course no one wants to talk to a logo but wouldn’t you rather talk to (and listen to) a person than a duck, a lizard or a cartoon character? I would. If corporations would bring the real people behind the brand forward to speak to me, it would make me feel more comfortable engaging with them.

The push to resort to mascots is based on a fear of sharing the real human beings behaving like real human beings from big brands. That would mean speaking in a human voice, sharing imperfections, apologizing (do ducks apologize?) and sounding informed and intelligent.

Using mascots is a cop out. It’s just a cuter form of the logo. The best way to engage with people is with people.

Definitely some companies continue to be afraid of building a personal, face-to-face, human based relationship with their audience, and I don’t understand why. Business has always been about people relating with people, and I do believe using mascots is like trying to keep their faces hidden from us, so that we can’t get to know who is responsible for what they say, if things don’t go right.